Day 2 – Research Design

Day 2 in Vancouver is coming to a close, and it was another good one. Today’s session at the UX Intensive was on Design Research and speaker Todd Wilkens was an extremely capable and knowledgeable speaker. We delved into the aspects of research, from how to generate the best questions for a research perspective based on the needs of the project, to the actual testing process to the analysis of the user-testing results. We’ve only touched on the surface of this at work, but with us moving forward quickly into doing more user research to inform our designs, this will be valuable information to take back to the team. The only complaint that I might have about today’s session is that we skimmed over some critical areas, but it’s understandable considering both the mass of content we had to cover and the almost infinite number of choices and methods that we could have touched on.

I skipped the happy hour tonight to call Shari and a fellow Flickr photographer Greg7. Hopefully, he and I will be getting together for beers tomorrow and he’s offered to take me around birding Vancouver on Friday, now that I extended my stay by a day to actually see the city in the daylight… In the evening, I was going to work out but there wasn’t time after the phone calls and before dinner – and dinner was WELL worth the skipped workout. We went to a restaurant called Sala Thai and it was delicious. Four of us went to enjoy the night of Thai cuisine and we had a good time – Dan from Knoxville, M.A. from Austin and Scott from Ottawa. We had lots of good conversation (you know, the normal topics – hockey, rattlesnakes, ethnic cuisine in our local towns, hiking), and some excellent food. I would highly recommend the place – the food was delicious and beautifully presented, and the service was friendly and helpful.

Here there be birds

I did finally get out and did a little birding today. The weather was beautiful, moderately warm and alternating clouds but sunny overall. The walk was a little further than I expected, and it took me a bit longer to get there than I had anticipated cutting my time down a bit. But it was worth it. I saw a bunch of birds, including 4 new species (bushtit, chestnut-backed chickadee, Northwestern Crow and Spotted Towhee), as well as two new sub-species (“Oregon” Junco and Song Sparrow (ssp. morphna). I also saw a bunch of odd gulls that I can’t seem to figure out – and unfortunately, the work laptop I’m on doesn’t have the tools to open my RAW files… But overall, not too bad a tally for a short walk about the Lost Lagoon.

And congrats to…

• The Inelegant Eagle – my friend Jim’s new website: beautiful photography from Vancouver, BC